This invention relates to light fixtures and particularly to light fixtures having a lamp movable between extended and retracted positions.
The use of exterior lighting has been quite popular in the United States and particularly in the sunbelt states of the United States where much activity takes place out of doors after dark because of the weather and where in lighting is used to accentuate the extensive decorative landscaping employed because of the favorable year round weather conditions. In recent years, low voltage lighting has become particularly popular for decorative lighting inasmuch as lower voltage and lower wattage bulbs provide a pleasant-like atmosphere with low power consumption and long life equipment. Most lighting fixtures employed for exterior lighting, however, utilizes ugly, inconvenient and, in many cases, unsafe lighting fixtures. Fixtures placed alone, adjacent a sidewalk or pathway present objects over which a person may fall when attention is not specifically directed thereto as by the lighting thereof. Mowing around such fixtures in a lawn becomes an inconvenient task requiring separate attention with hand shears or powered edger adapted for such use.
In the prior Bivens U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,850, a retractable light fixture adapted for decorative landscape lighting applications in which a retractable hollow cylinder carries a lightbulb which is retracted into a hollow body and which operates similar to a hydraulic piston mounted in a hydraulic cylinder housing and has a hydraulic line attached thereto for forcing the piston portion out of the housing to raise and lower the light. In the Bourne U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,134, an illuminated device having an underground storage position is provided which uses a clear lens to protect a lightbulb mounted in an inner housing which is telescoped upward within an outer housing buried in the ground when an electric motor is activated to drive a rotating screw which lifts the inner housing relative to the outer housing. A pair of microswitches turn the electric motor on and off when it reaches its limits. In the Arneson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 2,738,492, a signal light for automotive vehicles can be raised over the automobile for making a warning light, such as used on police cars and ambulances, more visible to warn other vehicles of a danger. In addition, there are numerous automobile lights which have retracted and raised positions to assist in improving the aerodynamics of the vehicle by having the headlight recessed when not in use. One such structure can be seen in the Matsuura et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,040.
In contrast to these prior art devices, the present invention provides a simplified electrical circuit in a recessed lighting fixture which can be quickly installed and which is operated simply by turning the remote electrical switch on and off. When the switch is turned on, the light is automatically raised and turned on. When the electrical switch is turned off, the lighting fixture lamp is turned off and returned into the housing which is typically mounted in the earth. The complexities of utilizing separate fluid lines for raising and lowering a lamp fixture and the complexities of an electric motor driving a screw are eliminated with a simplified electro-mechanical circuit.